Today in my e-mail inbox was a message from Howard Dean via
his Democracy For America organization that, like many of OpEd News readers, I
support. The title, however, drew my
attention due to the massive disinformation circulating through the media on
guns in the wake of the Tucson shooting and the increasing fervor among the
left for more gun controls. Like many
Democrats and liberals, I am a gun owner, NRA member and know that this is not,
never was and never SHOULD be a partisan issue. But I do join with anyone who wants to keep guns out of the wrong
hands and am generally in favor of those proposals which will actually have an
impact on violent crime without hampering the law-abiding from exercising their
legal 2nd Amendment rights.

This is why I was hopeful and optimistic when Dr. Dean's
message began with: "We can both protect our second amendment rights and keep
our communities safe from illegal gun sales."
After a brief description of his standing with the NRA (an "A rating" as
governor of Vermont), he went on to say: "But I don't think any Vermonter or
gun owners anywhere can argue against common sense changes to our background
check system to make our communities safer and more secure. And common sense changes are exactly what
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is proposing that President Obama and Congress take
action on right now."

This set-off alarm bell #1: Mayors Against Illegal
Guns. This self-described coalition of
mayors, brought together by notoriously gun-hostile New York mayor Michael
Bloomberg, claims that its mission is to halt illegal gun trafficking, yet the
history of the group paints a more sinister picture. According to the NRA-ILA website (http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=254&issue=011),
the group "has lobbied Congress"[to regulate] gun shows out of existence, and
for repealing the Tiahrt Amendment that protects the privacy rights of
law-abiding gun owners and limits disclosure of sensitive firearm trace data to
protect law enforcement personnel and protect lawful gun manufacturers from
bogus lawsuits." This last point is
important, because Bloomberg's group has been hit with several lawsuits by
legitimate gun dealers (http://www.nysun.com/new-york/gun-dealer-hits-bloomberg-on-sting-operation/38864/)
and was itself investigated by the BATFE because they had launched an illegal
sting operation using private investigators that actually obstructed an
ongoing, legitimate investigation by federal authorities! (http://www.saf.org/viewoe.asp?id=213) Many mayors dropped out of Bloomberg's
coalition because of what has been described as its "rogue activities."

Still, Dr. Dean and many honest people who were upset by the
Tucson shooting can't be blamed for taking the group at face value. Who doesn't want to stop crimes with
guns? So I was willing to provisionally
overlook mention of this group. Reading
on, Dr. Dean writes: " They have a two-part goal. First, we already have laws
that make it illegal for guns to be sold to felons, drug abusers or the
mentally ill. The problem is that states and federal agencies are not required
to make sure these prohibited purchasers are included in the background check
database. That must change."

Again, I agree. In
the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, the NRA worked with Congress to craft
legislation that would provide funding to states so that they could hire the
manpower necessary to include mental health records - a mountain of data - into
the NICS database of prohibited persons.
Legitimate gun dealers must get approval through NICS, the National
Instant Check System, before allowing a sale to proceed, but only recently were
mental health records approved to be included, catching many states unprepared
to handle the massive data entry task, which was an unfunded mandate until the
"NICS Improvement Bill" was enacted.
Even with funding, some states have lethargically refused to act, and
now Dr. Dean is proposing a requirement that they do so. Again, this is something that everyone, including
the NRA, can agree on. The real problem
comes with the next sentence:

"Second, it's time to stop the sales of guns without a
background check at all. Right now, anyone can go to a gun show and purchase as
many guns as they want no questions asked, no background check, nothing. It's common sense to fix these two loopholes
and make America safer from illegal gun sales."

What Dr. Dean is talking about here is the so-called "gun
show loophole." It is a myth. I challenge readers to fact check me
on this: all FFLs (federally licensed gun dealers) must conduct the SAME
BACKGROUND CHECKS on all gun sales at gun shows just as they do in their
brick-and-mortar stores!

In reality, what Bloomberg and his mayors are
targeting is PRIVATE SALES, and these have little to do with gun shows.

For instance, if you have a legally owned firearm,
or even a whole collection that you'd like to sell, you have many
options. You can run an ad in the paper, list them online, or go to a gun
show. At the gun show, you might offer them to various dealers to try and
get the best deal you can. Since gun shows bring out buyers as well, you
might also bump into a private buyer who is interested in your gun or
guns. THIS is their claimed point of contention!

Their solution? Shut down gun shows!
Now, if gun shows were a huge problem, it might be a small sacrifice in order
to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
Yet the most recent federal study shows that, of all guns
involved in a crime, only 0.7 percent were purchased at a gun show. (Caroline
Wolf Harlow, Firearm Use by Offenders 6 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Nov.
2001)

This fact would seem to expose an underlying
political goal: to chip away at legal gun commerce by prohibiting one avenue of
legal gun sales.

Even if this strategy fails to shut down the shows,
they know that it will make guns more expensive overall, and therefore harder
for average working people to afford the means to self-defense, by adding a
FEE. Forcing all private sales to go
through FFL dealers adds to the cost because they are private businesses and,
as such, will want to earn a profit.
Running NICS checks for free would be bad business.

Unlike other media pundits, bloggers and politicians
who complain and complain and offer no solutions, I write this article bearing
one!

As I see it, if we really want to address the
problem -- criminals and prohibited persons from getting guns from legal
sources -- then we do what works for the professionals: provide private gun
sellers with a special one-time access to the NICS database. This will allow anyone selling a privately
held firearm to be better assured that the sale isn't going to a "bad
guy." Best of all, it covers gun sales everywhere, which means it
will go far beyond the confines of gun shows to encompass ALL private sales,
having a much broader impact on REAL crime without impacting the rights of law
abiding firearms users.

Each side of the political debate seems intent on
setting up the gun issue as "us vs. them" when in reality we all share a common
enemy: violent crime. We can't win the
war against it alone. We must bring
together all sides who are earnest in doing something positive, NRA and
"million moms" alike. I urge readers to
contact their Senators and Representatives and insist that Congress allow
private sellers a special per-sale access to NICS and stop playing politics
with innocent lives. The longer we
banter about mythical loopholes and delay action, the more tragedy we'll
endure. I've had enough. How about you?

A professional DJ, self-employed since 1985, author of "The Complete Disc Jockey" and columnist for Mobile Beat Magazine. Stu is also an objective free-thinker who considers each and every issue on it's own merits; a rationalist, Constitutional (more...)